Paul J. Ritch

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Paul J. Ritch, Shetland author, grew up in Unst, where he became a fisherman. He began publishing in The New Shetlander and other journals in the late 1980s, leading to the appearance of his first collection Mother Wave in 1995, which includes poetry in both English and Shetlandic.

As Laurence I. Graham writes in his introduction, "... his verse has an authentic ring to it. It could only have been written by someone who has been there, who has experienced the long hours of sheer grind, danger and discomfort as well as the exhilarations of life at sea ... "

Ritch subsequently lived in Holland and Italy, before settling in Edinburgh, and now publishes under the name Paolo Dante. He is the nephew of Mackenzie Cash.